KC area hoops standouts Keaton Wagler, Bennett Stirtz honored at NCAA regional
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- Keaton Wagler named South Regional MVP after 25 points in Elite Eight win
- Wagler leads Illinois into 2026 Final Four; expected 2026 lottery pick
- Bennett Stirtz joins regional all‑team after 24 points and 40 minutes
Illinois freshman men’s basketball guard Keaton Wagler, a graduate of Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, was named MVP of the 2026 NCAA Tournament South Regional after scoring 25 points in the No. 3 seed Illini’s 71-59 Elite Eight victory over No. 9 seed Iowa on Sunday at Houston’s Toyota Center.
Wagler, a 6-foot-6, 185-pound Shawnee native who is expected to be a lottery pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, on Friday scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 65-55 Sweet 16 victory against No. 2 seed Houston.
“(It’s been) just a lot of hard work, really,” Wagler said in the postgame interview room of his freshman season.
Saturday’s victory propelled Illinois to its first Final Four since 2005.
“Just getting in every day, working hard no matter if it’s basketball, lifting, eating, all of that,” Wagler said. “Just staying focused throughout the whole time, building chemistry with my teammates and coaches. Just getting in here, having a lot of fun.”
Asked what it meant to him to advance to the Final Four, where Illinois will meet Duke in a national semifinal on Saturday, Wagler said: “A lot. This is what kids dream of. I know I dreamed of this when I was growing up, playing in the Final Four, competing for a national championship. To be able to do it with the people around me, teammates, coaches, fans, managers, everyone, it means a lot. We got here, but we’re not done yet.”
A second-team AP All-America selection, Wagler was joined on the all-South Regional team by another Kansas City-area player, Bennett Stirtz of Iowa.
Stirtz, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound senior from Liberty High, scored 24 points on 8-of-17 shooting (4-of-11 from deep, 4-of-4 from the line) with three rebounds and three assists while playing all 40 minutes.
Stirtz — he transferred from Drake to Iowa for this, his senior season — started his career at Northwest Missouri State, where he played in 2021-22 and 2022-23 for current Iowa head coach Ben McCollum.
Stirtz was a two-time Missouri Class 6 all-state selection at Liberty, averaging 18.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.5 steals as a senior. That team went 25-3 and he helped Liberty to a runner-up finish in the 2021 Missouri Class 6 state championship game.
“I just gave it my all in this Hawkeye uniform,” one-and-done Hawkeye Stirtz said.
He averaged 19.7 points, 4.4 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game in 2025-26, earning first-team All-Big Ten recognition from the league’s coaches and honorable mention All-America honors from the AP.
“I just hope that they have continued success,” Stirtz said of Iowa’s future, “and that’s all I want for them. They will do just that. It’s hard to put everything into words right now, but, yes, I gave it my all, and we all gave it our all, and it was a fun run.”
Stirtz played for first-year Hawkeyes coach McCollum at Northwest Missouri State, Drake and Iowa.
“I’ll just always remember the people around me and the support I always had,” Stirtz said. “This wouldn’t have been possible without everyone in my corner and all these teammates that I’ve had throughout the years. So it’s a testament to them and it’s a testament to Coach Mac and all the coaches that I’ve had throughout my four years. So couldn’t have done it without them and they just put me in the right spots.”
Wagler, meanwhile, was the consensus No. 143-ranked player in the high school recruiting class of 2025. He led Shawnee Mission Northwest to back-to-back Kansas Class 6A state championships — the first titles in program history — during his junior and senior seasons in 2024 and 2025
Those teams had a combined 47-3 record in Wagler’s final two years of high school. He recorded career totals of 1,105 points (11.8 ppg), 464 rebounds (4.9 rpg), 272 assists (2.9 apg) and 100 steals (1.1 spg), finishing No. 2 in school history in assists, No. 3 in steals, and No. 4 in both points and rebounds.
As a senior, he averaged 18.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.8 steals per game, shooting 59% overall and 45% from 3-point range. Entering the Final Four, he’s averaging 17.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists. He’s made 44.4% of his shots and is 83 of 202 from 3-point range (44.1%).
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“Against the Hawkeyes, Illinois let Wagler control the game in the final possessions and he was able to score, get to the line and set up his teammates for the game-sealing buckets,” wrote Chip Patterson of cbssports.com. “In a game that was extremely heavy with fouls and physical throughout, Wagler’s ability to play through contact and beat his man on the dribble allowed him to be a difference-maker at the line with a 7-for-7 showing on free throws.”
Illinois coach Brad Underwood, a native of McPherson, Kansas and K-State product, was asked after the Elite Eight win about Wagler’s rapid rise in college hoops.
“Yes, we knew Keaton was going to be good early. We had a scrimmage with Florida that was very physical, very competitive, and at times he was the best player on the court. That was shocking to me,” Underwood said.
“Then how you handle a little adversity, then how you handle crowds, being on the road, and nothing fazed him. He just continued to show that poise. He gets probably not near enough credit for how tough he is because he’s very unemotional and very stoic. But he’s tougher than nails. And then once we got kind of past the UConn game (74-61 loss to Huskies in November), we put him on the ball a lot, and we said we’re going to rock with this kid, and we’re going to live and die. His decision-making was good. He had to have the ball more.”
Other members of the South all-region team were: David Mirkovic and Andrej Stojakovic of Illinois and Pryce Sandfort of Iowa.
